“Over time I came to realize that it is not that experience exists because there is an individual, but that an individual exists because there is experience. I thus arrived at the idea that experience is more fundamental than individual differences . . .” (Kitaro Nishida, “Preface,” 1911 Edition, in An Inquiry into the Good, xxx).

If we come to realize that our personhood is grounded in and emerges from experience that we all share, we come to realize that the quality of our personal experience is directly related to the richness and diversity that is present in the community of experience of which we are all a part. If we diminish the community of experience, we diminish the quality of experience in ourselves and for all life. From this perspective, the most appropriate measure of personal wealth is to be found in the quality of relationships we have with our human and ecological communities of experience rather than in the acts of accumulation and consumption. From this perspective, the primary measure of the societal wealth is not gross domestic product but rather the quality of experience for all life.

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About Mark Y. A. Davies

Mark Davies is The Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics and Director of the World House Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility at Oklahoma City University. From 2009 to 2015, Mark was dean of the Petree College of Arts and Sciences and Wimberly Professor of Social Ethics at Oklahoma City University. Previously, Mark was dean of the Wimberly School of Religion at Oklahoma City University and Founding Director of the Vivian Wimberly Center for Ethics and Servant Leadership. Prior to becoming dean of the Wimberly School of Religion in 2002, he was associate dean of the Petree College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma City University and chair of the department of philosophy. Mark has published in the areas of Boston personalism, process philosophy and ethics, and ecological ethics. Dr. Davies serves on the United Methodist University Senate, which is “an elected body of professionals in higher education created by the General Conference to determine which schools, colleges, universities, and theological schools meet the criteria for listing as institutions affiliated with The United Methodist Church.” He and his wife Kristin live in Edmond, OK in the United States, and they have two daughters.
The views expressed by the author in this blog do not necessarily represent the views of Oklahoma City University.